Issue 31, Featuring Poet Jenny Molberg (Fall 2022)
Fatimah Asghar on When We Were Sisters, Screenwriting, and Social Media
by Madison Whatley Fatimah Asghar is the author of If They Come for Us: Poems and When We Were Sisters: A Novel. They are a poet, filmmaker, educator, and performer. They are the writer and co-creator of Brown Girls, an Emmy-nominated web series highlighting friendships between women of color. Along with Safia Elhillo, they are…
Shooting at Oakbrook Apartments
by Jenny Molberg Shooting at Oakbrook Apartments My neighbor held a gun to his chestand with the other hand, his son, captive for being his son. The bulletpunctured the man, the window, then the air above my head as I peered over the fence.A bullet to the chest can miss the heart. Square in their…
Bridge
by Jenny Molberg Bridge Ann Bryan, 1911–1994. Murdered, St. James Place Retirement Community, Baton Rouge. The women take their places at the bridge table,this day without Ann. North, West, East. I study Ann’s black hair, a curled wreath, in the bookabout her killer. Her large glasses exalt the kind of eyes that speak. What right…
The Alpha’s Attorney: Opening Statement
by Jenny Molberg The Alpha’s Attorney: Opening Statement Briefly, your Honor. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God.[1] This is what the LORD says: In the place where…
Statement of The Alpha’s Attorney
by Jenny Molberg Statement of The Alpha’s Attorney I say unto thee, these women belong to a cult against men. For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.[1] My client dreams of the respondents. They spew the blood spatter of men. They awaken my client. They unsettle my…
Evidence: He Said
by Jenny Molberg Evidence: He Said The beach.A dusk becameme. Next thing, a star fell.Her limbs and head its five points. Smallblack hole. Jenny Molberg is the author of three poetry collections: Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal (LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (forthcoming from LSU Press, 2023). An…
Redirect Examination by The Alpha’s Attorney
by Jenny Molberg Redirect Examination by The Alpha’s Attorney The MeToo poem was shocking, was it not? This was her dogged power of persuasion and not your actions, correct? The accused has written a poem about your treatment of her, has she not? And the poem, though it does not name you, leads people to…
Evidence: She Said
by Jenny Molberg Evidence: She Said The cops?When he chased medown an alley, they stoodblue, unmoved. He can spin a badge.Turn them. Jenny Molberg is the author of three poetry collections: Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal (LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (forthcoming from LSU Press, 2023). An NEA…
.Evidence: She Said
by Jenny Molberg Evidence: She Said I wearchartreuse. Under-eye bags. People whisper.I heard she made it up. See me,then don’t. Jenny Molberg is the author of three poetry collections: Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press, 2017), Refusal (LSU Press, 2020), and The Court of No Record (forthcoming from LSU Press, 2023). An NEA fellow, her…
You’re Just Like Everyone Else
by Jenny Molberg You’re Just Like Everyone Else He’ll say anything He’ll make a steamboat of his mouthand out comes a sick green river You’re the only one You’re water and oar You’re windand undertow We’ll fuck until we fly You know what he’ll do You’re just like everyone elseHe only says this to you…
Bitch Monitoring Your Phone
by Jenny Molberg Bitch Monitoring Your Phone I am a citizen detective. I am a sleuth.Now that I know where you are, I do not care. What shall I call my wave-colored moon?How will I occupy it? Where will I erect my flag? The blue tracker dot waits in the red traffic.Don’t come near me,…
Sandra Cisneros on Woman Without Shame
by Ellie Gomero and Cathy Almeciga Sandra Cisneros is an award-winning Mexican American poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist. Best known for her debut novel House on Mango Street, her work has garnered numerous awards, including NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, and national and international book awards.…
Anni Liu on Her First Book, Border Vista
by Madison Whatley Anni Liu is a poet, essayist, translator, and editor. She is the author of Border Vista (Persea, 2022), her debut poetry book. Gulf Stream Managing Editor Madison Whatley’s interview with her at the 2022 Miami Book Fair is below. MW: Thanks for coming. AL: Of course. MW: How does it feel to…
Those that announce their departure as a probable return
by Javeria Hasnain Those that announce their departure as a probable return My family is full of these kinds of people. Baba,going for his evening walks, says, I’m coming back. We all linger at the doorway a little longerthan is customary—unyielding, convinced that, somehow, we will snatch our dead back from God.The next day after…
Self-Portrait as a Witness
by Javeria Hasnain Self-Portrait as a Witness Is that how you have seen me all your life—unmirrored as I am. I wish I too had looked at myself longer as a child. Once, N fascinatedthe whole class by turning her fingers into a claw. I’m a vulture, she said, as if it was something to…
Cindy McCreery on Screenwriting
by Jordan Hill Cindy McCreery is a screenwriter and producer who has sold feature projects to New Line Cinema, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, National Geographic Films, Warner Brothers, MGM, Branded Entertainment, Lionsgate, and Sony. Gulf Stream staff member Jordan Hill’s interview with her is below. Jordan Hill: At the University of Texas, you…
The Sighting
by James Ulmer The Sighting On a bright fall morning in September, Austin Waller stepped across the parking lot toward the dry cleaner on Jackson Street. Pulling open the heavy glass door, he entered to find a black girl, eight or nine years old, seated on a stool behind the counter. Head down, the…
Cemetery Matters
by Amanda Dettmann Amanda Dettmann is a queer poet and teacher whose work can be found in her book Untranslatable Honeyed Bruises. She earned her MFA from New York University and has received support from the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Emerson Review, The Adroit Journal, The…
When we lived on the gulf
by A.M. Kennedy When we lived on the gulf The ten-mile bridge slumps with blistered pavement,dripping ozone and fishbelly-cream into the sea,held up by the memories of afternoons beneath the pier,ice cream sliding off stiff sugar cone. Static and storm, we built myths there together—sticking lightning quills into each other’s spines andpretending we were gods…
Prescribed Burn
by A.M. Kennedy Prescribed Burn Year of Fire: everything is matchstick fingers,touch the skin of any man and he smolders,the books you love crisp to ash,and what remains is coal and gristle and eulogy. Year of Flood: salt tears fill up the cup, up the bath,press acorns into the mud, sinking even as youtry to…
Kemi Alabi on Against Heaven
by Trey Rhone Kemi Alabi is the author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as the winner of the 2021 Academy of American Poets First Book Award. Their conversation with Gulf Stream poetry reader Trey Rhone at the 2022 Miami Book Fair is below: TR: So, Kemi, could you give me…
Health Conditions
by Porsha Monique Allen Health Conditions after Nicole Sealey’s “Medical History” Negative said the pregnancy test for the third timewith the third man. None of whom I lovedor loved me. My great-grandmother died ofnatural causes. My Aunt died of breast cancer,my uncle of prostate. My maternal grandmotherwent blind from diabetes then died from it.I have…
Elizabeth Holmes Is My Cellmate
by Amanda Dettmann Elizabeth Holmes Is My Cellmate We don’t share lipstick. We dropblood like acid, smear the left-over pricked purple under our eyesfor prison homecoming. Even herethere are favorites. She collectsmeaty green bananas. A vote for me,potassium for you! She teaches whitewomen to blink twicein a minute. Bends expiredmilk cartons into flower crowns.Passes out…
Aubade, Anastasia Island
by Madison Jones Aubade, Anastasia Island Chest deep in the green water, I see thembalanced on their toes, current pulling the pair from where they folded rings in their shirts,waded out into the rough tide. See them stoned and smiling in the choppy surf.Buoyed on the trough, he bends out of sight beneath the water…
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Blue No. I, watercolor, 1916
by Karen George Georgia O’Keeffe’s Blue No. I, watercolor, 1916 Misshapen skulls float, wrinkly lobesof cortex, cerebellum cased within. Blue, pale to black–brain moods. A hundred-billioncreamy neurons flow. Two parallel structures jut–a ladder thrust diagonal, no rungs. My mother’s brainmisfires. A network of endlesspaths. No wonderwe sometimes get lost. Karen George, author of Swim Your…
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Blue No. II, watercolor, 1916
by Karen George Georgia O’Keeffe’s Blue No. II, watercolor, 1916 Two blue ears float in an off-white bath—echoes of each other. Lobes, royal blue bleeding to paler tones, hintsof muddy teal and sea green, smudged to imply muffled hearing.Sinister, to see ears unattached. Below, four parallel lines—diagonal slatherssame degression of blues, dark to light. Are…
Georgia O’Keeffe’s Red and Orange Streak, 1919
by Karen George Georgia O’Keeffe’s Red and Orange Streak, 1919 I.Against black skya red horizonwavy on toplike painted hillsin the distance A wide streak arcs a flameorange, yellow, olive-greenfrom earth to skyopposite of lightning A cloud, or is it smoke, hoversunder the slanted spanfeathered, hazya patch of moss II.Trajectory of a bulletblood vessel evisceratedflatline on…
Line Work
by H.M. Cotton Line Work Because I spread the grout by hand along the tile’s corner seam, and because the seams are just an eighth the mix goes on easier than it comes away; and grit grimes under my nails, looks like dirt or, rather, ash brings back the…
Another Night on the River
by H.M. Cotton H. M. Cotton is the managing editor of Birmingham Poetry Review, contributing editor for NELLE, and production manager for both journals. Her writing appears in places such as Greensboro Review, Poetry South, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She is the founding director of the SPARK Writing Festival and teaches at the University of Alabama…
N: Cheating Evolution
by Kathryn Petruccelli N: Cheating Evolution Like many letters of the Roman alphabet, N has evolved over 4,000 years such that one might not recognize some of its earlier shapes. It derives from the Phoenicians’ letter nun, meaning fish. …Humans may also extend their bodies into non-anthropomorphic structures such as wings…During the twilight years of…
R: All You Need
by Kathryn Petruccelli R: All You Need The letter R, trilled in Latin, was referenced as littera canina (“the dog’s letter”) because its sound was believed to resemble a dog’s growl. Nurse: Doth not rosemary and Romeo begin both with a letter?Romeo: Ay, nurse; what of that? both with an R.Nurse: Ah, mocker! that’s the…
Self Portrait with Invented House of Worship
by Kathryn Petruccelli Self Portrait with Invented House of Worship Imagine a house. There should definitely be walls,boundaries, how else to hold this story? A house.Longing for home. Nesting. Maybe rent to own.Discount for long-term lease. All that. A houseof worship. Except I get to choose what goes inthe windows. Forget the guy with the…
Victoria Chang on The Trees Witness Everything
by Madison Whatley Victoria Chang’s forthcoming book of poems, With My Back to the World, will be published in 2024 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Corsair Books in the U.K. Her most recent book of poetry, The Trees Witness Everything, was published by Copper Canyon Press and Corsair Books in the U.K. in 2022 and was named one of…
Issue 31 Staff
Faculty Advisor
Denise Duhamel
Managing Editor
Madison Whatley
Assistant Managing Editor
Arnaldo Batista
Creative Nonfiction Editor
Ranijun Ruado
Poetry Editor
Rosa Sophia Godshall
Fiction Editor
Stevie Clemmons
Readers
Andrea Greenfield, Amanda Johnson, Trey Rhone, Jo-Anne Carrenard, Katherine Cruz, Ana Caballero, Yosef Khabinsky, and Julian Guerrero
Sign up for news
We don’t spam, we promise.
Cover artist
Mark McKain’s work has appeared in Agni, The Journal, Subtropics, Green Mountains Review, ISLE, Diagram, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. His chapbook Blue Sun was published by Aldrich Press. He experiences global warming in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Gulf Stream Magazine 